Diabase Dikes – Schoodic Point, Acadia NP

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Geocache Description:

Schoodic Point is located in the mainland unit of Acadia NP, about an hour northeast of the main park. There is a parking area with facilities adjacent to the earthcache. The dikes are viewable from the parking lot, but to see the best examples you will need to explore the rock surfaces. Be extremely careful near the cliffs, people have been swept off the rocky shoreline by rogue waves. Rocks may be slippery.

Be extremely careful near the cliffs, people have been swept off the rocky shoreline by rogue waves. Rocks may be slippery.

Schoodic Point is a peninsula of granite. The granite is light gray with a slight pink tinge. Cutting through the granite are dikes of dark diabase. Granite and diabase are both igneous rocks that form from the cooling of magma. The USGS has a good set of graphics on their website.

At Schoodic Point, the granite was formed first as one large mass. Fractures formed in the granite were later filled by molten rock (magma). The magma cooled quickly to form the diabase dikes.

As you walk over the rocks you can find examples where the granite on opposite sides of a dike would fit together like puzzle pieces if they were not separated by the diabase. There are also pieces of granite broken off from the sides of the fracture that were frozen in the middle of the dike. A very close examination of the edges of some of the dikes shows streaks that formed in the flowing magma.

You can also find examples of the different strengths of the diabase and granite. Find a spot where a dike extends into the ocean. (Again, don’t go any farther than is safe.) The harder rock erodes more slowly and extends farther into the ocean.

Logging requirements:
Send me a note with :

The text "GCZ5FP Diabase Dikes – Schoodic Point, Acadia NP" on the first line

The number of people in your group and if anyone is logging separately, their login name(s).

The relative hardness of the two types of rocks at the point based on how easily they are eroded by the waves

The width of the dike at the coordinates. If you are physically unable to reach the coordinates, estimate the width of one of the accessable dikes.

Be sure to check the box to include your email address with your message so that I can send you the OK to log. Any logs posted before I receive your email and qualify your find or logs containing spoilers will be deleted without prior notice.